Northlands Creative Glass Poster

This Thursday (28th April 2011) at 7pm, Caithness Horizons will be hosting a showcase event for the latest group of artists from around the globe to participate in North Lands Creative Glass’s residency programme.

An annual event at North Lands Creative Glass since 1998, the residencies have attracted an ever-widening pool of international glass specialists to their studio and workshops in Lybster.  This is the third year that residency artists have taken the opportunity to meet the public at Caithness Horizons, sharing their work to-date, and giving a preview of how they are approaching their time in Lybster, to develop new ideas and explore the wide variety of techniques available to them in Lybster.

Lorna MacMillan from North Lands Creative Glass, reflects on the achievement so far of involving artists from beyond these shores.

‘The residencies form part of a large programme of creative glass activities at North Lands. We are now into our 26^th residency and we have worked with almost 100 artists since 1998.

Residencies were introduced to support artists in developing new ideas and skills in a unique and inspiring environment. Residency artists also engage with local people through sharing their work in presentations such as this and through work with groups and schools. We will be holding an exhibition of their work in progress on Thursday and Friday 5 & 6 May and hope that people will enjoy seeing what they have achieved during their stay here.

North Lands Creative Glass is moving into an exciting period of development and the continuing residency programme is an important part of that.’

North Lands Creative Glass was set up in response to a growing interest in using glass as a medium for artistic expression.  Established in 1995 in Lybster a small fishing village in Caithness on the North East coast of Scotland, North Lands Glass has grown from a single class and conference based in the back of an old joiners shop to a pre-eminent glass studio with an international reputation for the quality of its tuition and facilities.

The vision for North Lands as established by its three founders, Dan Klein, Lord MacLennan of Rogart and Iain Gunn was that the studio would become, not only a place of excellence in glass making, but also a centre at which artists from other media could come to and experiment with glass as a means of creative expression.

Over the years, Iain Gunn has witnessed the mutual benefits of such a residency.

‘The constant cross fertilization of skills, ideas and attitudes takes the concept of what glass is and how it should be viewed on a seemingly never ending voyage of discovery. Whatever the skills and with whatever material the artist may have originally worked, all who come here are influenced by the landscape and light of Caithness. Its wild places, quietness and ever changing skies entrances and captivates making them return again and again’.

At a time of financial restraint to the arts as elsewhere, he remains mindful of the support needed to allow such work to continue.

‘North Lands Creative Glass is a charity based organisation and many thanks is extended to our support organisations without whom we would be unable to continue this journey.’

The 2011 Hot Glass Residency has brought artists from four continents: North America, Germany, Columbia and Australia.  Each of them describes how the land and seascapes of Lybster itself are informative elements which will in some way affect their work during the six week residency.

Clayton Hufford, who lives in Ashville, North Carolina, studies the functional and sculptural properties of glass.  He has considered how to use his time in Caithness to investigate how form, function and the perception of value are affected by new location and context.

‘I want to devote my study of glass sculpture to how it may incorporate elements found in the local landscape of Lybster Harbour.  I would examine the functional qualities of objects such as Lybster Bridge, lighthouses, boats, and lobster pots.  These objects represent the culture of the Lybster region and provide a hint to how daily activities are managed and accomplished.’

He is intrigued by how we can become ‘blind’ to objects around us.

‘My work begins not by questioning materials selected for construction, but by shifting placement of these materials to identify if perceived value of the objects may be altered upon applying a material shift.  I feel that objects seen and used on a daily basis may quickly fall from a user’s grasp of appreciation.  This could mean lack of appreciation for how they are engineered or simply lack of appreciating for how they function.  My work studies how the effects of a material shift may enhance or alter how we perceive objects present in a daily routine.’

German artist Veronika Beckh is interested in the capacity of glass to model light, and is curious to see how the vastness of the landscape and the seaside in Lybster may allow her to sense the power of nature.

‘In my art I invite the viewer to discover light and forms of tranquillity, in which you can find contemplation…  I imagine this [residency] could inspire my artistic emphasis on glass, light and space even further into unknown directions.  I would like to use this residency for developing my glass work more towards the direction of installation. To integrate and respond even more to the space, light, reflections, mirroring and the viewer. I would like to experiment with modular systems, from the individual part to the whole, and vice versa. My latest work Conical is a starting point for this direction. I see a great potential to explore. I would like to experiment with scale, combining the blown pieces with float glass and mirror. In the residency I would like to take full advantage of the studio facilities available to me.

Like Veronika Beckh, Columbian Edison Zapata looks forward to collaborating with fellow resident artists and local people from the surrounding communities.  This co-operative aspect of the residency is important to an artist, whose chosen core theme stems from very different experience.  Born in Venezuela, he has lived in Australia, Japan, and the USA, and is currently teaching at Long Island University and in Brooklyn, New York City.

‘One of my main interests as an artist is in the area of failed communication. This has developed out of my varied life experiences as an outsider assimilating the cultural norms of where I have relocated. Having relied on my surroundings to inform my work the experience of residencies in Japan and the USA has been very inspiring and influential. During those times the most important lessons I received were from collaborating with fellow resident artists and local people from the surrounding communities. A residency at Northlands would continue my progression, feeding my practise. I would be able to produce work, researching and connecting with the people, habitat and culture of Lybster. Sustaining my creativity allowing me to further my experiences by continuing these foreign perspectives, as I create new work in a new environment.’

Australian Holly Grace runs her own practice from the Canberra Glassworks.

‘My artwork is heavily influenced by my surroundings, and images which I capture of the natural environment are directly exposed and manipulated onto blown glass canvases. I intend to use my time at North Lands to further explore my relationship with the landscape through the mediums of photography, blown glass and engraving…   I am intrigued by the natural beauty of the Caithness landscape and feel that the contrast it creates with my home environment could be extremely inspirational. I am excited about the potential opportunity to further explore this often-extreme topography.’

The balance between traditional and contemporary techniques is another area she is keen to explore, and the facilities at North Lands will allow her to experiment with processes and techniques.

‘My main goal for the residency would be to make artwork that combines a layering of images that will create a landscape that has sense of depth as well as a sense of place. By combining engraving with sandblasted techniques it will help abstract and alter the image, creating a personal interpretation of the landscape that is based on both photographic documentation and drawings.’

The range of facilities on offer at North Lands Creative Glass is world class, and would surprise anyone tempted to think of Lybster as a rural backwater.  Michael Bullen, technical manager, remains excited by the potential of the organization to allow glass artists to challenge themselves, and stretch the use of the medium to the limit.

‘Neither a solid nor a liquid, glass inhabits a world in between; a material whose viscosity is such that it behaves as a solid at room temperature but whose molecular structure is not crystalline but fluid.

Here at North Lands Creative glass we investigate the possibilities glass offers as a means of artistic expression. It can be used molten and blown into shapes from a furnace or cast in kilns, fused, painted, enamelled, cut and abraded using diamond stone and copper wheels, etched with sandblasters or polished and decorated through the use of acid.

The list of how glass can be manipulated seems endless and here at North Lands Creative Glass we can facilitate an artist’s exploration of the material whether they are professional or amateur, experienced or novice. Through a series of Master classes, night-classes and short courses we endeavour to make the studio accessible to any who have the curiosity to try.’

Caithness Horizons’ education & community officer, Christine Russell, encourages people to come and hear from the artists themselves.

‘This will be the third year we’ve hosted presentations by North Lands artists, and we’re delighted to support one of Caithness’s most successful and dynamic organisations.  We have items from North Lands Creative Glass’s own collection on loan at Caithness Horizons, and they are some of our most popular – as well as most beautiful – artefacts.  A new addition to our North Lands loans is a fluorescent yellow glass model of Dounreay made of kiln cast uranium glass by Kate Williams during a project in 2006, which North Lands shared with Lyth Arts Centre.  I think it’s energising for Caithness folk to hear from foreign visitors that they find this landscape and this community beautiful and welcoming, as well as inspiring.  In previous years these presentations have been eye-opening – literally encouraging us as spectators to open our eyes and see our surroundings with the detailed perception of these artists.  Equally important is the chance for discussion afterwards.  Sometimes the most apparently simple questions can provoke profound debate, and it must be fun for the artists – just occasionally – to step outside the studio and be quizzed by the public. I’m very much looking forward to the event’.

Source: Caithness Horizons